Archive for the ‘Imperialism’ Category

This write-up is not a movie review, It’s the anatomy of Vishwaroopam. Please watch this film for sure, but watch it without being influenced by the hype.

The movie is not filled with the usual masala found in Indian films, Thanks to the makers and investors. Kamal Hassan’s acting is matchless. Padmasri Dr. Kamal Hassan has given a masala less proto type for Indian film makers to trend on for Action or Thriller movies. Bold Effort should be appreciated. Editing, Stunts, background score are world class.

Kamal Sir with the US flag. In reality Vishwaroopam is an American Film in Indian language.

At the same time Padmasri Dr. Kamal Hassan is using this movie as a platform to gather International attention on him and there the logic is murdered. [To reduce the length of this article the word “Kamal Sir” will be used instead of the long phrase “Padmasri Dr. Kamal Hassan”]

Let’s Go…

What is the necessity for a RAW Agent to save New York!!
Ok ok… Kamal Sir, We understood … You need more & more NRI’s to watch your film. US collection is very very important. But being a RAW agent if Vishwanath saves our Delhi or Mumbai it could be logical.Huh Ulaga Nayagan !!

Why the Government of India sends a RAW agent to rescue American prisoners in Afghanistan?
Ok..Ok.. No Questions. It’s just a film…Don’t look at logic.
[In exchange India can invite a CIA agent to rescue Indian prisoners in Pakistan]

This film goes very parallel with the popular American propaganda about the War on Terror, a very common stuff in Hollywood films. In one scene showing a NATO air strike in Afghanistan where an US soldier shoots a woman and then feels guilty for it, and says “Shit”… (Yeah, the same Hollywood style SHIT). Kamal sir conveys that US soldiers will never shoot civilians; if it happens, it’s by mistake not by intention. Superb Kamal sir… By this one scene you’ve touched the hearts of the American ruling class, they will be really pleased. Every time on media Kamal Sir portrays himself as an ardent reader of current affairs, it’s strange how he missed the other perspective of war on terror. Anybody please send him the URL of Wiki Leaks.

The film shows the brutal regime of Taliban, Al-Qaeda. But Justice would have been done to history if Kamal Sir touched the origin of the religious fundamentalism in Afghanistan and the role of CIA in funding the Afghan fundamentalist in the 80’s. Kamal Sir should read extensively on “Operation Cyclone”.

Vishwaroopam is Kamal’s resume to hunt opportunities in the West. He has done so much to please the American ruling class and probably a Hollywood/ Oscar lobbying.

Last but not Least, The Indian Prime minister directly calling the RAW agent Vis… Ohhh Kamal Sir….Why Sir. This is almost an age old Captain.Vijaykanth fashioned scene. People teased Captain for making such scenes, but as Kamal Sir’s scene is filled with English and as he himself is an intellectual the viewers are scared to make fun.

This article is presented with the same “Freedom of Expression” with which Kamal Sir was arguing in the media to lift the ban on his film.

Unbelievable, but it’s true. In the US there are protests against “ Corporate Greed “. The mass which considered Warren Buffett’s money making formula as a golden philosophy is protesting against social and economic inequalities. Strange, but it’s very very true.

The American working class has truly identified “Capitalism” as the source of all the problems they face. They are protesting at the ‘Wall Street’ which is the symbol of World Capitalism. It’s a good move indeed. This must be a welcome news for the working class in the rest of the world. Everything started with the registering of the domain name occupywallst.org (it is widely believed to be the work of Canadian anti-consumerist organization Adbusters Media Foundation), and the call for Occupy Wall Street was published, the rest is news. The so-called super power has been witnessing massive job cuts, raising poverty level in the recent years. Today 1 in every 6 American lives in poverty. And the government bailout of the corporate in the recent economic meltdown added fuel to the Occupy Wall Street campaign.

Yeah it’s a good start; But the American working class should not end this movement within the Wall Street. It seems the movement lacks accurate demands, there is no official list of demand and no formal leadership. The protesters should understand the fact that they cannot sail the wild sea without a destination. You cannot change your economy without a clear demand on the table. The Occupy Wall Street movement, which began a month ago in New York’s financial district, has now spread across the US and the Europe. The movement has no formal leadership structure and no singular demand. Instead, it has become a platform for individuals and nonprofit organizations in the US to demonstrate their frustration with the present political and economic system. This is how a society without a well formed left movement behaves. America lacks a left leadership to convert this public anger into a genuine revolution.

You cannot oppose ‘Corporate Greed’ without plucking out ‘Capitalism’. The Ronald Reagan Era made all Americans to memorize “Communism is evil” and “Free Enterprise is democracy”. American civil society should understand the basic contradiction here, you cannot rise against the Wallstreet if you believe in and support Free Market Economy. The survey by New York Magazine among the protesters shows the composition of the movement, 46% stated that they “believe in capitalism and feel capitalism is not fundamentally wrong, it just needs to be regulated.” This is what the success of the cold war Era campaign by Regan administration. The American working class is still struggling to find a solution or an alternative to capitalism.

In the last decade almost 42400 factories were shutdown in the US. The de-industrialization of America started in parallel with the globalization of economies in rest of the world. Thousands of factories have left the United States in the last ten years alone. Millions and millions of manufacturing jobs have been lost in the same period. The United States has become a nation which consumes everything and produces nothing. This is mere corporate greed. The high pegging of US dollar facilitates US companies to set up manufacturing hubs in Asia or Latin America to reap the benefits of low operative cost. They don’t have the mind to think about the axed blue collar American worker.

The Occupy Wall Street movement needs to frame a road map about how to bring back manufacturing to the US and to stop the outsourcing of IT/Service, and to restrict the import of cheap workforce into the US. And in today’s context and in the scale of the globalized economy the US multinationals cannot afford production/ operation within the US, because they’ve already tasted the fruit of cheap resources at offshore. And the emerging economies are presenting them a market which is easy to sell the old wine in new bottle.

US spends more than any other nation for Military. There is no Soviet missile’s in Cuban shores these days and there is no immediate threat from neighbors, still the US pumps in more and more money into military. Americas defense spending is truly for its imperial interest. Since the end of World War II, all the wars fought by US or NATO were on a remote place from the US mainland. This is to find markets for its corporations or in the name of curbing communism fueled by the famous Domino theory. The American working class is paying a huge sum every year for all the imperialist war to benefit the corporations.

You cannot solve the present problems of American working class and poor along with having an economy which is truly capitalistic in nature. There cannot be a change without hitting the American Imperialism.

It’s the time to throw capitalism and Imperialism into the trash. This has to be done along with the working class of the world.

All the best for the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ protesters, The world is with you… Long live revolution.

NDTV and Times Now have already approved Anna Hazare's movement as second freedom struggle. So its Official.

“ Anna Hazare ” is a classic case study to understand how media can drive a nation. The Jan Lokpal episode illustrated how television channels can blow tiny tots to a mammoth giant. The North Indian media in both English and Hindi are projecting as if the whole of India is on streets in support of Anna Hazare. In reality Anna’s hunger strike is just another protest for the majority. In South India it’s just another news. In Chennai considering the city’s population, only a handful of upper middle class are fasting with Anna fever. In Kashmir and the Northeast people have more serious things for concern than the Jan Lokpal bill. In all the Non-Hindi speaking states only the minority of the population which has access to English news channels cares about Anna’s fast, for the rest its business as usual. For ‘NDTV’ and ‘Times Now’ the English speaking Urban-Upper-Middle class means INDIA. They don’t care about any other protest by other sections. The North Indian media never gave a lime light equivalent to Anna’s fast to the peasants of Singur and Nandhigram Or the people of Kashmir Or the tribals of central India fighting against the ‘Operation Green Hunt’ Or the protest like the one against POSCO (Orissa), Vedanta (Niyamgiri hills) Or at least to the students who stood for Uniform syllabus in Tamilnadu. This cruel media can hide any true uprising of the masses and at the same time can uplift a totally middle-class movement like Anna Hazare’s. We are living in a country where the media decides what a protest is and what is not.

The world’s longest Hunger Strike is also going on in India. In Manipur the lady named Irom Chanu Sharmila is fasting since November-2000. She is demanding the Indian government to repeal the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA). The AFSPA is in force in seven states of North east and Jammu & Kashmir where there is no practical democracy and actually ruled by the Indian Army. With AFSPA in force the Army can attack any one without a proper social or technical justification. Irom Sharmila was arrested several times by the government and force fed through her nostrils. The North Indian Media never turned their camera on this Iron Lady of Manipur. The great Indian middle class who are jumping behind Anna Hazare is yet to discover the Northeast. And the North Indian Media needs another Columbus to reach northeast and unearth the atrocities of Indian Army there.

Muthukumar lying dead inside the premises of the Indian government building 'Shastri Bhavan' in Chennai on January 29, 2009.

Muthukumar's Funeral filled with a ocean of people. (click on the picture to expand)

Another example of media blockade was on the mass protest and movement by the Tamil Diaspora during the genocide of Srilankan Tamils in 2009. K. Muthukumar, a young journalist wanted to turn the attention of the Indian people and government towards the genocide of Srilankan Tamils. He wanted to stop the war in the island through a mass upraising in India. He made a self-immolation after distributing a four page pamphlet to the public before his death. This was not even a news material for the North Indian TV channels. Muthukumars death ignited a mass protest across Tamilnadu. Students were on streets shouting against the Indian and Lankan governments, Lawyers boycotted courts. Muthukumars funeral procession was attended by tens of thousands of people; streets were flooded by people shouting slogans, banners everywhere. At the same time Sun News was projecting India-Srilanka cricket match in breaking news. And as usual the North Indian media considered this as a regional stupidity and ensured that all these were not aired.

And we have the ‘Operation Green Hunt’ hunting tribals in the states of central India like Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa, Where the government has singed numerous deals with multinational mining companies to exploit India’s natural resources Or to set up SEZ’s (Special Economic Zones). These companies want to evacuate the people living there. If they refuse to leave their land they will be killed by the Indian paramilitary forces with a popular escapism of curbing Naxalite’s. ‘Operation Green Hunt’ is alive since 2009. For ‘NDTV’ & ‘Times Now’ this was never been a matter of concern.

Tribals in Orissa protesting against land acquisition for a steel plant by POSCO, a South Korean multinational.

Today Anna Hazare is projected 24X7 in all Hindi and English channels. What is the difference between Anna and Irom Sharmila, Anna and Muthukumar or Anna and the tribals of central India.

Irom Sharmila’s protest directly questions the concept of Indian Union. She exposes the brutality of the Indian Armed forces. It brings out the Indian occupation of Manipur. In the interest of the Indian ruling class the media cannot give her a 24X7 status, only Anna & Co are eligible for that.

Similarly Muthukumar’s death raises a hammer on India’s foreign policy and its Geo-political interest in South Asia. Muthukumar’s death can shackle the built-up pseudo Image of Rajeev Gandhi as a peace messiah for Srilankan Tamils. And more importantly Muthukumar’s Image can be used to mobilize the masses to pressurize the Indian government to stop the war in Srilanka which was originally aimed to create new market for the Indian capitalist. As a market friendly media ‘Times Now’ and ‘NDTV’ cannot show something which will affect the Indian investors who were ready with their cash to invest in Srilanka after wiping out the freedom struggle of the Elam people.

In the same way the tribals of central India are exposing the cruelty of the ‘New Economic Policy’ which is praised by our brilliant middle class. They are exposing how the natural resource of this nation is plundered by the multinational companies. In the interest of capitalist and imperialist this valiant struggle by the tribals has to be hidden deep inside the dark.

On contrast Anna Hazare is not fighting against the Indian Union nor the Imperialist nor the capitalist. He is just another hero against the most popular villain to the middle class called ‘Politician’, Yes… Yes in most of the Indian movies a politician means villain. Anna’s version of corruption is very narrow. Anna and his group claim that corruption is only linked with government and politicians. They hide the fact that behind every mammoth scam there is a corporate hiding behind. They don’t feel tax waiver for huge corporation is a corruption. They don’t fight the actual enemy, they are just trying to divert the anger of the educated middle class towards the government so that the corporates exposed in the scams of the recent years can escape. Let’s apply Anna’s theory to the 2G scam, only A. Raja is the culprit and the corporate that paid kick bags to reduce the price of 2G licenses is not. If Anna’s men are protesting before the house of the MP’s, they should also protest before the gates of TATA and Reliance.

If we term this with a middle class eye, Anna Hazare’s protest is very much market friendly. No wonder why it was blown out of proportion by the capitalist media.

This naked protest by Manipuri women against the rapes and human rights violation by Indian Army shook the world, but not the Indian media. (Year 2004)

The story is set in 2154 in a far away planet of Pandora, where humans are trying to colonize the planet. The money greedy capitalist want the minerals from Pandora be extracted displacing the most dominant species of the planet called Navi. They hire humans to infiltrate the Navi villages for spying and to brainwash the Navi’s to leave their land with out battle. But when the Navi’s refuse to leave their land, the human colonists plans to kill all the Navi’s.

James Cameron’s this carving is exactly the same story happened and happening in our own planet Earth. James Cameron shows a group of humans pitted in a battle against a distant planet’s indigenous population. This is exactly the same reel revolved after Christopher Columbus landed in America in 1492. The European settlers wanted to displace the Native Americans (American Indian) to exploit the rich soil of the newly discovered land. They started killing them which resulted in the largest genocide in the history of mankind. Now the entire North America is a total white mans land, we can hardly see any native blood living there. The very thin population of the remaining native americans have been closed up inside human sanctuaries called Indian Reservations.

The story was same in Australia, where the British colonist were doing the racial killing to create todays Australia which is fully a white mans land. The Australian aborigines who were the indigenous people lost their land to the settlers.

A Hunter from the Cherokee tribe of North American Indian.

A Navi Hunter from Avatar.

The Native Americans and Australian aborigines were victims of the genocide by the greedy European Imperialist, but James Cameron’s Navi’s are victims of an Inter-Planet Imperialism by humans. But James did a justice for the oppressed and the exploited by villainizing the capitalist who plans to loot the minerals from Pandora by killing the Navi’s. The movie ends up with a victory for indigenous Navi’s and the human colonists are send back to the earth. This is a suprising behaviour from Hollywood. The Hollywood was never seen in this tone before. In the lines of Mackenna’s Gold (1969), there were many movies which portrays the Native Americans as bad-guys and trying to justify the genocide on them. And in the recent past Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto made a genocide of history itself by projecting the wordings “A great civilization is not conquered from without untill it has destroyed itself from within” at the start of the movie. Apocalypto hurts the feelings of the remaining Native Americans living. And Mel Gibson has tried to be the advocate of the European Kings & Queens by saying Native Americans killed themselves.

Yes in this movie Hollywood is in a new Avatar. As a responsible American citizen James should project his movie to the Obama’s and ask them to stop killing innocent people in Iraq just for Oil.

The photograph of Ernesto “CHE” Guevara is the most printed photograph of the 20th century and the most famous photograph of the modern times. And about the familiarity the numbers are almost close to Jesus Christ… Yes people who don’t know about Che would have seen it at least once in their life. The Image of Che remains as a strong symbol of revolutionary and progressive thoughts around the globe and ignites a fear to the Imperialist. This iconic photograph is printed in T-shirts, Bags, Towels, Caps, Watch dials, Ornaments … what else…Che is every where.

But do the people who wear Che really know his ideology?

The answer will be painful for all the Che followers, could be painful for Che himself.

When I was in high school, I was interested to wear a T-Shirt with Che printed in it, but some how I didn’t got the chance to get one. Few years later I saw a guy in my college who was wearing Che T-Shirt during a cricket match. Out of curiosity I asked him “You follow Che..?” He replied “What..!!!”. After few exchanges I came to know that he doesn’t know who Che was. When I asked him “Why you brought this?” He said “The face in the T-shirt is nice”. Oh my boy Che is not a model.

I met another guy, a youth leader of a caste organization who believes that his caste is superior to all. I saw him wearing Che T-shirt. When I asked him “Your ideals are not matching with Che.’s !”, “He asked when everyone is wearing why not me?”. I faced lot of people in the same lines. Lot of similar such events drove me away from my boy hood dream of wearing a RED CHE T-shirt.

People who are Corrupt, Chauvinist, Womanizers, Fascist, Pan Brokers, Stock market gamblers and cowards …All wear Che. Today for majority of the world’s youth who are apolitical, Che is a man who lived and died to give poses for photographs meant to be printed in T-shirt. Yes people who don’t know about Che and who are living against his ideology are wearing Che, just like wearing a dress printed with Mickey mouse or Spiderman. People who know nothing about Che are misusing his image. This really huts people who understand the ideal Che lived for.

Che lived & died for you and me. He thought us how to resist Imperialism. He sowed the seeds for the unity of the third world. He helped the freedom struggle of more than one nation. He was fear less in exposing the super powers. He threw his ministership to carry on the fight against exploitation of all forms. He is not a Hollywood star to be decorated in your shirt & pant. And he is not a model to be painted in your dress with out giving respect for the cause he died.

Today Che has become a source of business. Business houses are painting Che’s image in what ever items they can to make money. In the internet plenty of companies are selling things printed with Che. The saddest part is Che is also sold by the American dress makers who take part in the US trade embargo on Cuba. They have made Che as a fashion icon. This is the ultimate and greatest joke of this century, English crown prince Harry was photographed wearing the Che’s image on a T-shirt in London in 2005. What a shame ??. The imperialist mob which fought against Che, who killed Che are today using his image. This is how the western Imperialist misinterpreted Che over the years. By slowly doing all these things they are trying to change the revolutionary icon in Che into a Simple-and-Void-Fashion-Icon or a modern art like monalisa.

If you wear Che, Please respect his ideals, learn the cause for which he fought bravely and died.

Guerrillero Heroico

This famous photograph of Che was shot by a Cuban photographer named Alberto Díaz Gutiérrez Korda in 1960 in Havana, This became famous after Che’s death in 1967. He named the photograph as “Guerrillero Heroico” in Spanish means “Heroic Guerrilla fighter“. Alberto Korda never applied for royalty of the image, because he was a Marxist and did not wanted the commercialization of the image. He believed that his work will inspire the youth towards revolutionary thoughts. As his wish the image spread all over the word symbolizing Che as a ressitance against all forms of exploitation. But in the year 2000 a liquor company used his famous photograph to sell vodka. Alberto Korda sued the company and on an interview he said

“ To use the image of Che Guevara to sell vodka is a slur on his name and memory. He never drank himself, he was not a drunk, and drink should not be associated with his immortal memory…As a supporter of the ideals for which Che Guevara died, I am not averse to its reproduction by those who wish to propagate his memory and the cause of social justice throughout the world. “ – Alberto Díaz Gutiérrez Korda